At Christmas we take a few days off work to spend time with the TV. This year I mostly watched Harry Potter grow old and stroppy. By the sixth or seventh film in the wizarding series – Harry Potter and the Galloping Hormones – he’s basically James Dean with a wand. Daniel Radcliffe is much shorter though. In that sense, Harry Potter never really grew up.
Talking of which, who saw Outnumbered – the sitcom about chatty kids that has put me off human reproduction? These supposedly hilarious youngsters talk incessantly; their parents suffer every insult with that wary irony that writers think defines modern parenting. I propose an alternative comedy called Seen and Not Heard. Actually, I’d rather the children weren’t seen either – but this is television and you’ve got to throw the audience a bone.
